Trapped between two lodestars

NC grappling with throes of transition Mohammad Sayeed Malik Many people are curious to know ‘what’ Farooq Abdullah is doing these days though most are keen to know ‘how’ Omar Abdullah is performing.

Polarisation of popular interest is between the father’s charismatic star power and the son’s novelty value.

For the first time in its 7-decade history, the apex leadership of the National Conference happens to evoke such a split, bi-polar perception.

It is because the rank and file is unable to locate the ultimate source of authority, between their party president and the chief minister.

Even in the pre-1947 era when the NC leadership comprised a galaxy of stalwarts there was never any doubt about who really was the first-among-equals.

‘Qaid-e-Azam’ connoted an authentic popular title, under all circumstances.

That undisputed (unipolar) era lasted nearly five decades, including the periods between 1953 and 1975 and from 1975 to 1982.

The leadership was something like a Credit-cum-ATM card which the party could encash under all circumstances.

Over the next two decades, between 1982 and 2002, the credit worthiness of the card began to wear thin mainly because of excessive ‘withdrawals’ and depleting reserves.

The ATM part of the card though continued to serve its reckless users till the ‘cash crunch’ of 2002 by which time even the overdraft limit had been exceeded.

The 2002 crash has inflicted apparently permanent disfigurement of the card-user entity—the NC leadership.

Its reduced asset value became all too apparent by 2008 when the irreversibility of the 2002 losses was virtually sealed.

A more serious body blow was delivered on that fateful night between December 28 and 29, 2008.

Till he went to bed on December 28, Farooq Abdullah— and us all— were definite about who the next chief minister was going to be—‘Yes, it is me.

I am the chief minister’, was the last we heard from ‘Qaid-e-Saani’ until next day, that is.

The very next morning we were told to believe that the man’s inner voice had worked through the night and impelled change of his mind.

For the first time the crucial decision of NC’s leadership was not its own as certain unseen powers had decisively intervened to determine the issue.

This time around, however, it was not an old style natural evolution of successor-leadership, like that in 1980 or 1982.

It turned out to be a 21st century technological revolution marking a cultural upgradation from the ‘2G’ to ‘3G’ level.

The generational changeover is easy to explain, and easier to understand, in prevalent technological terminology as a vast majority is so familiar with the difference between a ‘2G’ gadget and a ‘3G’ gizmo.

Also, now that the ‘hardware’ and ‘software’ lingo is the in-thing it is proper to go hi-tech for better understanding delicate nuances of its analogical application in the leadership case.

Otherwise the new ‘icons’ on the horizon will remain largely unrecognised.

The difference between the old and the new is like that between a ‘Sheikh Nazir’ and a ‘Devender Rana’ or a ‘ Mohammad Shafi Uri’ and a ‘Nasir Sogami’.

Farooq’s attempt in 2002 to implant an untested, untried ‘3G’ device on to a creaky ‘2G’ contraption backfired because he ignored—or did not care about—carrying out prerequisite compatibility test.

The device failed to attract buyers and returned to the owner like a bad coin.

In the very next round, in 2008, the device was withdrawn from the market and replaced with the old ‘2G’ gadget.

Thus Omar was unceremoniously dumped and Farooq jumped back on to the centre stage as the NC’s chief ministerial candidate.

That was the position even after the elections, till the night of December 28-29.

Presumably, what Farooq missed to notice was that the ‘3G’ device, dumped by him, had somehow fallen into the preying hands of a far more adept techie in far away Delhi.

Delhi’s ‘experts’ lost no time in rebooting the gadget and fitting it with their own compatible software programme.

The pre-programmed software loaded in Delhi has been secured against all kinds of local ‘virus’.

The device is no longer user-friendly locally.

Unfamiliar icons respond only to distant prompting.

Right now the situation is somewhat like the BSNL’s concurrent process of generational upgradation from 2G to 3G level of its mobile network.

The changeover is causing widespread exasperation because of frequent breakdown of connectivity.

The generational incompatibility has become a big nuisance for the mobile users in Jammu and Kashmir.

Almost similar problems of ‘connectivity’ between its 2G and 3G versions have beset the NC.

The ‘servers’ installed with the two generationally-apart centres of authority are different too.

The ‘2G’ variety has its old, though not yet obsolete, look with worn out or wearing out appearance while the ‘3G’ has a radiant appearance.

It is a baffling cultural revolution too for a large section of the partymen.

That also explains the predicament of the NC cadres in coming forth with a clear cut stand over most of the key political issues troubling the minds of their supporters.

They fear that loss of coherence might rob them of their relevance in the process.

These fears are not unfounded.

Having lost nearly a half of their traditional political capital to their arch rival, not once but twice, the NC leadership and its following need greater synchronisation at every level.

Omar’s future as well as that of his pedestal depends on whether and how soon he –more than his 2G predecessor—is able to bring about synergy between the two parallel cultures.